Glen Alpine should cut budget, not raise taxes

TO THE EDITOR:

The fire chief was 20 feet from one of his men with a truck parked in a “no-parking” spot at the Glen Alpine post office. I asked him to look at where they were parked. He showed little concern. Some of his men then started laughing like schoolgirls.

My wife told them I was not funny, but dangerous. He then had them move the truck. My wife and I then went back to watering flowers in town. A month later in the department meeting he said he asked me to leave. I passed a note to another alderman telling him that was not true, if he had asked me to leave, I would still be standing there.

(The fire chief) does not come to town meetings. Has cost taxpayers thousands of dollars by not filing for reimbursement for first responder calls outside of Glen Alpine. One fireman had his son approach me when I was at a Glen Alpine festival in 2023 when I running for alderman, trying to provoke me.

I never took the bait and thanked him for being a junior firefighter. A couple of months later, my wife and I were watering flowers downtown when a fireman approached me. I didn’t know who he was. He told me who he was and said he owed him an apology, that he had been listening to the wrong people, that he could see by my actions that I wanted what was best for Glen Alpine.

In January he sent a letter to the town attorney and labor board, stating that I was stalking him. Now who is pulling his strings? I have not changed. Utility employees, during the festival of 2023 when I was running for alderman, put up fliers for other candidates on the windshields of the town truck right beside my booth for other candidates, because of my stance on accountability.

Utility employees have been told not to lock the gate, if they get hurt how does help get to them. They lock the gate because the previous mayor told them to, after I walked in on them playing games on their cell phones at 10 o’clock in the morning.

Any good tree trimmer will tell you they do not trim mere or get up brush without having a chipper on them. Our town has a chipper. The utility boys refuse to use our chipper after being told to use it because it is more efficient.

In my 16 years in construction and 20 years running a marina, I never had to put up with such incompetent employees. I just read in The Paper that one in 10 North Carolina residents live in poverty. In our town there are about 160 people.

Our town employees are asking people for budget negotiations, but I for one will fight for a reduced budget and common sense. The last reevaluation increased tax value by approximately 37%, we reduced tax rate by less than 2%. We do not need to raise taxes; we need to cut spending.

REID SCOTT

Town of Glen

Alpine Alderman